Emily’s “Good Taste” #3

A 1940 letter from Emily Post to a friend. This letter is part of a group of letters from Emily Post to a friend in the 1930’s and 1940’s. This group of letters was acquired for the Etiquipedia Etiquette Museum, scheduled to be opened within the coming 5 years.

Good Taste Today

Part 3

Dear Mrs. Post: After we were married two weeks ago, my husband was presented with a radio by his fellow office workers. They gave it to him at the office and he brought it home. Now he thinks that I should write a note to his boss, thanking every one, whereas I feel that they did not intend this to be a wedding present to me personally. If they had they would have sent the radio to our house, wouldn't they? 

Answer: I think you are perfectly right that it was a present to him individually and that you should not bo expected to thank them. In fact, I think If you wrote a note now it would be like getting up to take a bow to an audience who has applauded your husband's speech. 

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Dear Mrs. Post: Should people who come to my beauty shop be properly spoken of as customers, clients, patrons or what? And should ladies who come regularly to my shop and whose names I naturally know very well be called Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown, or Madam? 

Answer: You speak of your "customers" and you call those whom you know personally by name (i. e., Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown) and you call strangers "Madam." – By Emily Post in the San Bernardino Sun, 1939                

         🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Emily Post- “Good Taste Today,” 1939

A typed letter from Emily Post to a friend. This letter is part of a group of letters from Emily Post to a friend in the 1930’s and 1940’s. This group of letters was acquired for the Etiquipedia Etiquette Museum, scheduled to be opened within the coming 5 years.– Property of the Etiquipedia private library

Good Taste Today

Part 2

Dear Mrs. Post: What would be your suggestion for clothes to wear at a club breakfast, which begins at noon and continues with an all-afternoon program? 

Answer: Street-length afternoon dresses would be proper, and hats. 

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Dear Mrs. Post: My daughter is being graduated this year from high school and she and I had thought it would be nice for me to invite her teachers to tea some day after school. I have never met any of the teachers but I hardly think, under the circumstances, that fact would matter. My mother seems to feel that this gesture would be all right in all the many more friendly smaller communities but that in this big city it would be looked upon by them as presumptuous rather than courteous. We are naturally very much disappointed at mother's criticism of our plan and wondered if she is right about this. 

Answer: To invite teachers who have shown no especial friendliness to your daughter and for whom she has had no especial liking, might seem to them surprising and possibly questionable. But any teachers she has always liked very much, and who would naturally be the ones she would like you to meet, will, I am sure, be delighted to come. She fact that you do not know them personally does not affect the propriety of your writing a note to each one saying that before Mary leaves school it would give you so much pleasure to meet the teachers of whom she has been especially fond, and inviting her to take tea with Mary and you on Friday, at half past four? – By Emily Post in the San Bernardino Sun, 1939                

         🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Good Taste from Emily Post, Pt 1

Five things you probably didn’t know about Emily Post

Good Taste Today 

Part 1

Dear Mrs. Post: If the host carves and there is no maid at all, how should the vegetables and potatoes be served? Is it bad form to pass serving dishes from one to the other around the table.

Answer: If you help yourself there is, of course, the advantage of taking as much, or as little, as you want. However, there is also the question of hot serving dishes which, in fingers sensitive to heat, have been known to bo dropped! Even if the host serves the vegetables and potatoes as well as the roast, the plates can be filled according to each one's direction, such as: "May I have a rare slice of meat and just one potato, please?" This plan seems to me the simplest. But the only answer is to do what seems to you most practical. 

Dear Miss. Post: I went to a dinner some time ago where there was a guest of honor. After I had found my place at table I sat down, as I always have done. But much to my embarrassment the other ladies stood at their places and waited until the hostess asked them to be seated. I must admit that it took me several courses to regain my composure. The ancient advice of "When in Rome . . ." did not help in this situation, as I had never dined with this particular group of people. They must have thought me extremely rude, and perhaps I was, but I had never run into this display of politeness to the guest of honor. Will you write something about it? 

Answer: As you have said, many communities have customs of their own. Personally I have never heard of this procedure except in boarding schools. According to conventional usage every lady sits down as soon as she is told where to sit, or as soon as she finds her place card. The gentlemen stand at their places until the ladies are seated. In other words, what you did was (according to etiquette) entirely right. – By Emily Post in the San Bernardino Sun, 1939                

         🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia